Lakers shoot for second straight win

EL SEGUNDO – The Lakers are hoping for a repeat performance from their new point guard, and not from the team on the other side when they face the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

The Nuggets, like the Lakers, are coming off a win on the heels of a long losing streak. The Lakers lost six in a row before beating Utah on Friday, while the Nuggets had lost eight before topping Memphis.

The Nuggets beat the Lakers 111-99 on Nov. 13, when Timofy Mozgov and Kenneth Faried combined for 44 points and 22 rebounds.

“You can’t take a play off with these guys,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “If you do it’s going to be a putback or a dunk that gets everybody excited for them.”

Against the Nuggets, the Lakers (14-19) will start their 19th different lineup in 34 games as Wesley Johnson moves back to small forward and Nick Young returns to the bench. Kendall Marshall, Jodie Meeks, Robert Sacre and Pau Gasol round out the starting five.

With speculation running high that the Lakers could be nearing a trade that would send Gasol out of town, there’s good reason to be concerned about the interior matchups. But as two of the the NBA’s worst teams over the last month face off, much of the focus will be on the point guards, former North Carolina alumni Kendall Marshall and Denver’s Ty Lawson.

It’s a relationship that stretches back to their days long before Carolina and the NBA, when they grew up near the District of Columbia. Lawson is the rising star, while Marshall is the former lottery pick who exploded for 20 points and 15 assists Friday in his first Lakers start.

“That’s been one of my idols since I was young,” Marshall said. “I grew up watching him play, being from the same area, when I was in middle school I used to go watch him play … his freshman year of high school.”

Lawson presents the toughest matchup for the Lakers with his quickness.

“If he gets a little bit of a step on you, you’re done,” D’Antoni said. “If the bigs don’t get back, you’re done.”

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